The Suffolk Festival - Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L

The Suffolk Festival

Music of Tudor & Stuart England 13–16 June 2016

The Tallis Scholars

La Nuova Musica

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The Suffolk Festival

Music of Tudor & Stuart England

• Seven private concerts, mostly of English music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

• Liturgical music is performed in some of the most magnificent parish churches in England.

• Two operas by John Blow and Henry Purcell, concert performances in a Tudor mansion and a Georgian theatre.

• The Tallis Scholars, world leaders in vocal music of the time, provide four of the concerts.

• La Nuova Musica, exciting young Baroque specialists, bring the operas and a programme of funeral music.

• Admission is exclusive to a hundred or so who take a package which includes accommodation, most meals, lectures, transport and much else.

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13–16 June 2016

A golden age of English music

A rural setting

The seven concerts of this festival provide a rare immersion in the vocal music, liturgical and theatrical, of the Tudor and Stuart periods.

There are several places in England where such a festival could be located, but perhaps nowhere more suitable than this patch of West Suffolk.

The 16th and 17th centuries were a golden age for English music, with a constellation of composers working for cathedral, chapel, court and theatre.

There is a clutch of parish churches of cathedral-like proportions which are at least partly Tudor in date. There are outstandingly attractive towns and villages with enough hotel rooms for audience and musicians.

There is gently rolling farming country with irregular fields, centuries-old hedges and an abundance of vintage trees. This is rural England at its most alluring.

Despite tempestuous and often bloody relationships between Catholics and Protestants and between moderates and radicals, liturgical music reached a peak of beauty and spiritual intensity at this time.

The programme includes masterpieces by John Taverner, Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Morley, Henry Purcell and several others.

Towards the end of the period, music for the theatre achieved heights which were not scaled again in England until the 20th century.

John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, two of the earliest English operas, are heard in concert performances.

Piquancy is added by the inclusion of pieces by three contemporaries, Tavener, Pärt, and Muhly, and variety by two continental composers, Heinrich Schütz and Nicholas Gombert.

It helps also that there is an exquisite Georgian theatre – the Theatre Royal in Bury – and a Tudor and Stuart mansion – Melford Hall. There are concerts in both. The chosen churches are in Bury-St-Edmunds, Lavenham, Long Melford, Cavendish and Kedington.

These glorious buildings, some of the most beautiful and best preserved parish churches in Europe, are evidence of the huge wealth the region accrued through the wool trade at the end of the Middle Ages.

And for those for whom it matters, the region is only seventy miles from London – yet it feels a world apart, and an age away.

Above: Bury St Edmunds, mid-19th-century lithograph. Left: Baroque decorative design by Jacob Baumgartner. All the engravings, lithographs and etchings in this brochure are from the MRT collection.

Contents Musicians............................................5

Pre-festival tours:

Booking details:

Concerts........................................6–10

Tudor England............................13–14

Booking form.............................17–18

Accommodation & prices.................11

Mediaeval East Anglia................15–16

Making a booking.............................19

Festival practicalities........................12

Booking conditions..........................19

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The performers

An all-inclusive festival

The Speakers

The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, need no introduction as the world’s leading specialists in Renaissance a cappella polyphony. Their series of four concerts is lightly held together by several mini-themes – Purcell and his Anglican predecessors; settings of the Magnificat; mixing old and new; and a variety of scoring programme by programme.

This festival is one of Martin Randall Travel’s own creations and follows the format which we established over twenty years ago. Access to the concerts is exclusive to those who take a package which also includes hotel accommodation, most meals, coach travel, pre-concert talks, interval drinks and much else besides.

John Bryan is Professor of Music and Head of Music and Drama at the University of Huddersfield. He regularly contributes to BBC Radio 3’s early music programmes and is artistic adviser to York Early Music Festival. He is a member of the Rose Consort of Viols and Musica Antiqua of London and is currently leading a project entitled ‘The Making of the Viol in 16th-century England’.

La Nuova Musica is the other ensemblein-residence and provide Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as well as Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary and Schütz’s Musicalische Exequien.

Under the leadership of David Bates the group has emerged as one of the most exciting early music ensembles in Britain. A fine list of soloists is headed by Dame Ann Murray as Dido.

Two lecturers introduce the music and its context with daily talks, Jonathan Keates, among whose many literary productions are biographies of Henry Purcell and William and Mary, and John Bryan, Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield and a member of the Rose Consort of Viols. Both have been speakers on MRT festivals before, to great acclaim.

See page 12 for details of what is included.

The potency of the music is magnified both by the appropriateness of the buildings and their size, which is modest in comparison with conventional concert halls. The audience will number not much more than a hundred but nevertheless three of the concerts have to be repeated because they are too small to accommodate everyone in a single sitting. This creates an intimacy of musical communication which greatly enhances the artistic experience.

Jonathan Keates recently retired from teaching English at the City of London School. As author and journalist, his nonfiction books include Purcell: A Biography and The Siege Of Venice, and fiction includes the short story collections Allegro Postillions and Soon to be a Major Motion Picture. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Trustee of the London Library and Chairman of the Venice In Peril Fund.

Above left: Bury St Edmunds, engraving 1770.

Photographs, top to bottom: John Bryan, Jonathan Keates ©Jerry Bauer.

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Musicians

The Tallis Scholars

La Nuova Musica

Founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire.

La Nuova Musica was founded by its artistic director David Bates in 2007 with the aim of bringing the highest standards of musical performance of 17th- and 18th-century repertoire to as wide an audience as possible.

In 2013 the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with a world tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries and including a five-concert tour with Martin Randall Travel to the places where Thomas Tallis is known to have worked. Career highlights have included a tour of China in 1999 and performing in the Sistine Chapel in 1994. In total, they have performed over 1,900 concerts and made over 50 recordings.

They have also commissioned many contemporary composers.

Their recordings have attracted many awards including Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Year award, the first recording of early music ever to win this coveted award, three Diapason d’Or de l’Année awards and Gramophone’s Early Music Award three times.

The energy that the Baroque demands of its performers is LNM’s most potent tool in striving to move audiences. Their journey started with a hand-picked group of singers and instrumentalists on a residency at Snape Maltings, hosted by Aldeburgh Music (the other end of Suffolk) and they have returned year after year. Hailed by BBC Radio 3 as ‘one of the most exciting consorts in the early music field’, they have presented operatic and concert repertoire throughout the UK. Performances have included Monteverdi’s Vespere della Beata Vergine 1610, L’Orfeo, Handel’s Apollo e Dafne, Serses, Il Trionfo del tempo e del Disinganno, Messiah, Acis and Galatea, Blow’s Venus and Adonis, motets by

Bach and Conti’s L’Issipile. In 2015 LNM were Associate Artists for the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival.

In 2011 LNM signed with Harmonia Mundi USA to make five discs. Their latest release, A Royal Trio, with countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, was awarded ‘Editor’s Choice’ in the November 2014 issue of Gramophone magazine.

David Bates is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and of the Schola Cantorum in Basel. He initially embarked on a singing career but soon took to conducting. Praise has been fulsome: ‘energetic yet sensitive’ (Music International); ‘a brilliant young music master’ (Eastern Daily Press); ‘breathing life, meaning and shape into every phrase’ (The Times). In 2014 he guest conducted Cavalli’s La Calisto at Cincinnati Opera and Cesti’s L’Orontea for the Innsbrucker Festwochen.

Peter Phillips has made an impressive reputation in dedicating his life’s work to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony. As a result of his work Renaissance music has come to be accepted as part of the mainstream classical repertoire. Apart from The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips has appeared with many other specialist ensembles and he gives numerous master-classes and choral workshops every year around the world. As a writer he has contributed a regular music column to The Spectator for 31 years and in 2003 published What We Really Do, an unblinking account of what touring is like alongside insights about the make-up and performance of polyphony.

Photographs, clockwise from top left: David Bates ©Ben Ealovega; Peter Phillips ©Eric Richmond; The Tallis Scholars ©Eric Richmond.; La Nuova Musica ©Ben Ealovega.

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Concerts Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal La Nuova Musica David Bates Director Dido and Aeneas Concert performance of an opera in three acts with music by Henry Purcell and libretto by Nahum Tate Dido Dame Ann Murray Aeneas Benjamin Appl Belinda Sophie Juncker Sorceress Emilie Renard 1st Witch Augusta Hebbert 2nd witch, Spirit Esther Brazil Sailor Simon Wall

The Theatre Royal The Theatre Royal is the finest of the three Georgian playhouses surviving in Britain. It was built in 1819 to the designs of William Wilkins, architect of the National Gallery and Downing College – and son of a theatre impresario. The horse-shoe auditorium with stalls, boxes and gallery is the traditional form of continental court theatres. It was carefully restored 2007–9.

Dido and Aeneas Henry Purcell (1659–1695) ranks among the best of European composers of the Baroque era. His genius was recognised early, and he became a chorister with the Chapel Royal and succeeded John Blow, his teacher, as organist at Westminster Abbey at the age of 20. He composed in a wide range of modes and moods, from the sublimely religious to the outrageously bawdy, but as a master of emotional expression he was increasingly drawn to the theatre. Composed in 1689, the hour-long Dido and Aeneas is one of the first English operas and perhaps the finest by an Englishman before the twentieth century.

Above: steel engraving c. 1860 after J.M.W. Turner’s 1814 depiction of ‘Dido and Aeneas’.

Photograph: Dame Ann Murray ©Sian Trenberth.

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Bury-St-Edmunds The Benedictine monastery at Bury St Edmunds was perhaps the richest in the country at the time of its dissolution in 1539. Impressive fragments remain, but now the town is predominantly Georgian, and one of the most attractive in East Anglia. The church of St James became a cathedral in 1914 and was completed in an authentic Gothic style from 1962 to 2005.

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Lavenham Church of St Peter & St Paul The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips Director Amy Haworth, Grace Davidson, soprano; Caroline Trevor, Patrick Craig, David Gould, Edward McMullan, alto; Mark Dobell, Christopher Watson, tenor; Tim Scott Whiteley, Robert Macdonald, bass.

Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656) ‘Great’ Service Magnificat and Nunc dimittis Almighty God the fountain When David heard Edmund Hooper (c. 1533–1621) Behold it is Christ Robert White (1538–1574) Miserere Exaudiat te Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) Te Deum ‘for meanes’

Long Melford Melford Hall La Nuova Musica David Bates Director Venus and Adonis Concert performance of an opera in three acts and a prologue with a libretto by Anne Kingsmill and music

by John Blow Venus Sophie Juncker Adonis Benjamin Appl Cupid Emilie Renard Shepherds and Hunters Augusta Hebbert, Esther Brazil, Simon Wall, James Arthur

Church of St Peter & St Paul The Church of St Peter & St Paul stands a little apart from the village, it’s mighty tower almost as high as the church is long. While the Decorated chancel dates to the early fourteenth century, the nave, begun in 1486, is one of the most perfect manifestations of Perpendicular in England, famous for its size, homogeneity and beauty. The fine furnishings include misericords, chancel screen and an exceptional pair of chantry chapels.

Programme The scoring for four altos instead of the more normal four sopranos takes us to the heart of the post-Reformation Anglican choir. This enables tackling one of the greatest of ‘Great’ services, by Thomas Tomkins, a commanding start to the series, which is bookended with Tallis’s equally grand Te Deum ‘for meanes’.

In between come some classic Anglican anthems: Tomkins’s When David heard is perhaps the most renowned, while both the White items are rarely heard but are works of genius. Exaudiat te ends with one of the most thrilling ‘Amens’ ever written.

Lavenham Lavenham is an almost completely mediaeval town, yet it is a living, thriving country community. The wool trade led to a brief burst of prosperity from the late fifteenth century to the 1520s; the subsequent 500-year slump preserved most of the timber-framed Tudor buildings which make the little town one of the delights of England.

Long Melford Appropriately named, Long Melford consists basically of one broad street nearly a mile long which is lined with buildings of the 15th to the 19th centuries. Formerly residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural, there is now a range of shops, restaurants, pubs and antiques emporia.

Melford Hall Melford Hall began as a 15th-century hunting lodge belonging to the abbot of St Edmundsbury. It was transformed by Sir William Cordell, Speaker of the House of Commons, during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth (the latter stayed here in 1578) and changes continued in the next four centuries.

The Hyde-Parker family has been in residence since 1786, though the house passed to the National Trust in 1960. The hall where the concert takes place is an appropriate and evocative setting for the concert.

Venus and Adonis John Blow (1649–1708) was a prolific and precocious composer, writing several anthems while still in his teens and becoming organist of Westminster Abbey aged twenty. He taught Purcell composition. Composed as a court entertainment for Charles II c. 1683, Venus and Adonis is claimed by some to be the earliest surviving English opera, though it is more usually categorised as a masque or a semi-opera. The libretto is by Anne Kingsmill, who on her marriage became Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea.

Right: Lavenham, Church of St Peter & St Paul, engraving c. 1900.

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Kedington Church of St Peter & St Paul The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips Director Amy Haworth, Grace Davidson, soprano; Caroline Trevor, Patrick Craig, alto; Mark Dobell, Christopher Watson, tenor; Tim Scott Whiteley, Robert Macdonald, bass.

Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) Magnificat (‘Short’) I am the resurrection Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558–1602) Funeral Sentences Nolo mortem John Tavener (1944–2013) Funeral Ikos Lord’s Prayer The Lamb Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Hear my prayer O God thou art my God

Cavendish Church of St Mary The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips Director Caroline Trevor, Patrick Craig, David Gould, Edward McMullan, alto; Mark Dobell, Christopher Watson, tenor; Tim Scott Whiteley, Robert Macdonald, bass.

Nicholas Gombert (c. 1495–c. 1560) Magnificat IV Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) If ye love me Hear the voice and prayer John Sheppard (1515–1558) Spiritus sanctus In manus tuas II John Taverner (c. 1490–1545) Magnificat for Four Voices

Church of St Peter & St Paul Though an interesting compendium of several periods, it is not for its architecture that Kedington parish church is of national interest but for its contents. It retains, as practically nowhere else, ecclesiastical clutter accumulated from the Middle Ages to the Georgian era. In the words of Simon Jenkins, ‘Inside no inch is without diversion… nave and aisles contain every component of a parish church, tombs, screens, pews, altars, paintings, all tumbling out of the gloom…’.

John Betjeman characterised the church as ‘a village Westminster Abbey’.

Programme These pieces are scored for the familiar choir of SATB, which in Tudor terms usually means small-scale and straightforward. Gibbons’s ‘Short’ is a beautiful example of the style, as is Purcell’s O God thou art my God. Simplest of all are Morley’s Funeral Sentences. Expressing a spirit of calmness in worship was also one of Sir John Tavener’s attributes, which can be heard in his Lord’s Prayer, written for The Tallis Scholars, and his Funeral Ikos, premiered by them at a family funeral.

Purcell’s Hear my Prayer is an exception to this mood of simplicity, being a hair-raisingly complex piece of 8-part counterpoint.

Church of St Mary The village spreads along a broad straight road and around a tilted, triangular green.

The church stands near the northern apex.

It is screened by trees but its presence is announced from afar by its tower. While modest in comparison with some of the other ecclesiastical venues on this festival, it is nevertheless larger and architecturally more accomplished than the average village church. The high, whitewashed interior and large windows create an ambience of serenity, and the clear glass admits shafts of sunlight filtered through the foliage.

Programme Although again scored for only eight singers, this concert has a quite different feel from that at Kedington. The four altos are back and sopranos banished, a grouping which seems to have excited some of the best Renaissance masters. The Magnificat settings are both virtuosic in different ways, the Taverner a riot of colour, the Gombert tirelessly subtle in its use of the different voice-parts. Sheppard’s Spiritus sanctus isn’t far behind in its long lines and challenging harmonies. By contrast the two Tallis anthems are among the most uncomplicatedly beguiling anthems in the whole repertory.

Left: Bury St Edmunds, St James’s Tower, etching 1820 by H. Davy.

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Long Melford Church of the Holy Trinity La Nuova Musica David Bates Director Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) Musikalische Exequien Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

Church of the Holy Trinity Holy Trinity lies on the edge of Long Melford, on a rise beyond the green, past Tudor almshouses and clipped yews. It is one of the finest churches in England, and the longest, a masterpiece of Perpendicular rebuilt around the turn of the 15th–16th centuries. Large areas of glass, flint and ashlar flushwork, a castellated skyline and a great tower are impressive enough, but to this is added, uniquely for a parish church, an east end lady chapel. Inside, tombs and stained glass commemorate the wool-trading families whose munificence enabled this magnificence.

Programme Towards sundown, a bell tolls as participants make their way across the green for immersion in some of the most potent funerary music of the 17th or any century.

Heinrich Schütz wrote his Musikalische Exequien for Henry, Count of Reuss-Gera, who had planned his own elaborate funeral in advance of his death in 1635. Queen Mary II died unexpectedly at the age of 32 in December 1694. The music Henry Purcell composed for her exequies in Westminster Abbey was performed there again eleven months later for another funeral: his own.

More about the concerts Exclusive access. The concerts are private, being planned and administered by Martin Randall Travel exclusively for an audience consisting of those who have taken the full festival package.

Tickets for individual concerts may be available to purchase from April 2016, if any spare places remain, to those who have registered interest.

Duration. Six concerts are about an hour long with no interval, the seventh is nearly two hours with an interval.

Seats. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit were you want or where there is space. In the churches seating is largely on pews.

Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with authenticity than acoustical perfection and venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort that modern purpose-built concert halls try to exclude.

Repeats. Three of the venues are too small to accommodate the full audience and so these concerts are repeated.

Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues close for repair: there are many possible unpredictable circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme.

We ask you to be understanding should they occur.

Above: engraving after Watteau’s ‘The Music Lesson’ from ‘The Magazine of Art’ 1889.

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Bury St Edmunds Parish Church of St Mary The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips Director Amy Haworth, Grace Davidson, Emily Atkinson, Molly Alexander, soprano; Caroline Trevor, Patrick Craig, alto; Mark Dobell, Christopher Watson, tenor; Tim Scott Whiteley, Robert Macdonald, bass.

Robert White (1538–1574) Lamentations I Nico Muhly (b.1981) Lamentations Robert White Christe qui lux III and IV Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Remember not O Lord God of hosts

Henry Purcell (1659–1695) I was glad Thomas Weelkes (1576–1623) Alleluia, I heard a voice When David heard Arvo Pärt (b.1935) Magnificat John Tavener (1944–2013) Song for Athene John Taverner (c.1490–1545) O splendor gloriae

Above: Bury St Edmunds, Parish Church of St Mary, wood engraving c. 1880 from ‘Our Own Country’ Vol.V. Right: Henry Purcell, lithograph from ‘The Musical Educator’ Vol.II publ. 1896.

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Church of St Mary One of the most magnificent parish churches in the country, St Mary is grander and architecturally finer than an adjacent church which became a cathedral in 1914. Begun in 1424, St Mary is endowed with the harmony of a building completed in a single campaign.

The nave interior has ten pairs of arches underneath an unusually wide hammer-beam roof, famously adorned with carved angels, mythical creatures and saints. Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and briefly Queen of France, is buried here.

Programme The final concert returns to the standard Tallis Scholars line-up of four sopranos, which gives the possibility of two equal soprano parts (Purcell’s I was glad and Remember not) or two high and two lower ones (Taverner’s O splendor gloriae and White’s Lamentations).

The theme of Magnificat settings continues with Arvo Pärt’s setting, one of his greatest pieces, and the theme of mixing old and new finds White’s Lamentations paired with one written for The Tallis Scholars by the New York-based composer Nico Muhly. Their musical language is quite different but the mood is fascinatingly similar. The theme of Purcell and his predecessors is also given a good outing. Tavener’s Song for Athene is the piece which was memorably sung at Princess Diana’s funeral.

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Accommodation & prices Hotel accommodation in Bury St Edmunds or Lavenham for three nights is included in the price of the festival package. There are three hotels to choose from – the choice of hotel determines the price you pay. See page 12 for details of what is included.

We have chosen the hotels with care. For location, amenities, comfort, maintenance and service, within their respective price bands these are the best in the area.

Prices given on this page are per person.

Quiet? Traffic noise may affect some rooms, particularly in The Angel, given that this is in the town centre.

The Angel Hotel, Bury

The Swan Hotel, Lavenham

The Great House, Lavenham

A 4-star hotel in a historic coaching inn in the centre of Bury St Edmunds, a short walk from St Mary’s.

An inn since 1667, The Swan spreads through a number of contiguous half-timber buildings which date to the 15th and 16th centuries.

Rooms are modern and attractively furnished. Décor in their ‘feature’ rooms can be quirky. Some bathrooms have a bath, others a shower. Some rooms have airconditioning. Wireless internet is available free of charge. There is a lift.

Rooms have been recently renovated in a pleasingly restrained manner which retains their historical character. Most bathrooms have a bath with shower attachment. Wireless internet is available free of charge. In 2015 the hotel opened the Weavers’ House Spa.

A small, five-bedroom hotel situated on the market square, The Great House is the smartest place to stay in Lavenham. It was built in the 14th and 15th centuries and the façade added in the 18th century. A French couple converted it thirty years ago and still run it.

The public areas are comfortable with a contemporary décor. There is a good restaurant, a lounge and a bar. Service is friendly. Car park: no need to book, and no charge.

There is a bar, extensive lounges, brasserie and a good restaurant. Service is of a high standard. There is a car park opposite the hotel which is free of charge.

This is also the base for the Mediaeval East Anglia pre-festival tour (see pages 15–16). www.theangel.co.uk

Prices Standard double or twin room: £1,690 Superior room: £1,740 Suite: £1,820 Double for single occupancy: £1,780

Rooms vary. As is inevitable in historic buildings, rooms vary in size and outlook.

Rooms are smart, contemporary and comfortable with all mod cons including fresh fruit, a minibar and tea and coffee making facilities. The historic nature of the building means that creaky, uneven floorboards and low doorways are a feature.

www.theswanatlavenham.co.uk

The French restaurant is excellent. Public areas are limited – there is no lounge. Wireless internet is available free of charge. There is free parking in the market square.

Prices

www.greathouse.co.uk

Standard double or twin room: £1,880

Please note that if you take part in one of the pre-festival tours, you will need to change hotel if you choose The Great House as your festival accommodation.

This is also the base for the Tudor England pre-festival tour (see pages 13–14).

Superior room: £1,930 Junior suite: £1,990 Suite: £2,140

Price

Double for single occupancy: £1,990

Standard double or twin room: £2,220

Arriving early If you would like extra nights in Bury or Lavenham before or after the festival, please ask us or contact the hotel direct. This would be better done sooner rather than later. info@martinrandall.co.uk

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Festival practicalities Joining and leaving the festival Starting, Monday 13th June. The festival begins with a talk at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, at 4.00pm. The first concert follows immediately afterwards.

Finishing, Thursday 16th June. The last concert at St Mary’s, Bury St Edmunds, will be over by 4.30pm. Coaches are available to take you to Bury railway station or Lavenham.

Extra nights Please contact us if you would like extra nights before or after the festival in your chosen hotel.

Getting to and from Suffolk Coach from London. Coaches have been chartered to leave central London on Monday 13th June at 10.30am and to return to London on Thursday 16th June c. 7.00pm. The cost is £28 each way. You can request this on the booking form.

By train. There are trains to Bury St Edmunds from London, Manchester and elsewhere, most necessitating a change at Cambridge or Peterborough.

What the price includes Concerts: the package includes access to all seven concerts.

Talks: four lectures by leading specialists, Jonathan Keates and Professor John Bryan.

Accommodation: three nights in a hotel from a choice of three (the main determinant of price variation).

Meals: breakfasts, one lunch and three dinners.

Transport: private coaches for travel to concerts, dinners, hotels and railway station.

Tips: for restaurant and hotel staff, drivers etc.

Festival staff: a team comprising staff from the MRT office and experienced event managers will be present.

Programme booklet: a publication containing a timetable, practical information, programme notes and much else is issued to all participants.

Pre-festival tours Tudor England, 8–13 June 2016 (mc 713).

See pages 13–14.

Mediaeval East Anglia, 9–13 June 2016 (mc 717). See pages 15–16.

Walking option Guided country walks of three or four miles are being planned for mornings or afternoons when there are no concerts. If you are interested in joining the walkers please indicate on the booking form. Details will be ready towards the end of the year. There will be a charge for the package of four walks, which are likely to require participants to stay in Suffolk on the night of Sunday 12th June.

Coach transfers between Bury station and the hotels are provided on Monday 13th June at 11.45am and at 12.45pm, and on Thursday 16th June to arrive at the station by 5.30pm.

There is no charge for this service.

Driving. Parking is available free of charge at all hotels.

Fitness for the festival There is some walking involved in this festival, to reach venues and get around towns and villages visited. Only one of the hotels has a lift. Participants need to be averagely fit, surefooted and able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty.

We ask that all participants take the fitness tests described on page 19 before committing to a firm booking.

Meals Three dinners and one lunch are included in the package, as well as breakfasts.

Included meals are in the hotel in which you are staying and in The Black Lion, a hotel restaurant in Long Melford.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Above left: ‘Views in Bury’, wood engraving c. 1880 from ‘Our Own Country’ Vol.V.

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Tudor England

Monarchs & subjects, bridging mediaeval & modern Pre-festival tour

8–13 June 2016 (mc 713) 6 days • £1,680 Lecturer: Professor Maurice Howard Tudor England studied through a variety of architecture, artefacts and artworks.

Dynastic houses and rustic cottages, seats of learning and merchants’ mansions, artisan plasterwork and world-beating stained glass.

Accompanied by a leading Tudor specialist, historian and art historian Professor Maurice Howard.

The defeat of Richard III by Henry Tudor in a Leicestershire field on August 22, 1485, heralded a glorious age over which the Tudor monarchs would preside for the next 118 years. Out of the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses a new social and economic order emerged: an age of discovery, trade and commerce, in which the old mediaeval aristocracy was joined by a prosperous new class of bureaucrats at court and a wealthy merchant class. This tour explores the legacy and interests of the Tudor gentry and nobility through the prism of some of their finest surviving monuments in the south-eastern counties, many of which owe their existence to the flourishing wool trade.

Under Henry VIII vast estates of the monasteries passed into new hands; house-building was now dominant rather than spending lavishly on churches. The ambition to demonstrate wealth through these buildings is clear from all levels of society down to even the lesser gentry.

Gainsborough Old Hall is one of the largest and most complete brick and timber-framed manor houses in England; Ellys Manor House contains rare survivals of 16th century interior decoration; the immense gatehouse at Layer Marney has delicate Renaissance ornament in the form of its windows. The list goes on.

The visual arts were complemented by a great flourishing of the musical and literary arts that have made some of the great works of the late sixteenth century stand out as the quintessential products of the Elizabethan age. The achievements of John Caius at Cambridge, manifest in a series of gateways to his college, mark the absorption of new approaches to classical learning into English education, while the great house at Burghley, completed by William Cecil, uses tradition and innovation in design and ornament fit for Elizabeth’s first minister and ready to receive the Queen herself.

Above right: Layer Marney, watercolour by L. Burleigh Bruhl in ‘Essex’, publ. 1909.

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Itinerary 7th June, Tudor London. There is a London Day which studies the Tudors through visits to Westminster Abbey (Henry VII’s Chapel and royal tombs), the National Portrait Gallery, Middle Temple Hall and Hampton Court. This is independent of Tudor England but participants may like to preface the tour with this day. Please contact us to register your interest.

Day 1: Hatfield, Leicester. Leave London at 10.15am. Henry VIII’s three children spent much of their childhoods at Hatfield, and of the palace the great hall survives.

The discovery of Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park in 2012 was one of the most extraordinary archaeological events of recent times. The King was reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in March 2015, beneath a tomb of Swaledale Yorkshire stone. A visitor centre places the Plantagenet defeat into a wider historical context. First of three nights in Rutland.

Day 2: Gainsborough Old Hall, Ellys Manor. Dating from the mid-15th century, Gainsborough Old Hall played host to Richard III in 1483 before the owner, Sir Thomas Burgh, switched allegiance to Henry Tudor. Sources suggest that Henry VIII may also have spent a night here. In addition to the formal rooms a remarkably intact suite of service interiors has survived. Built by an international wool merchant in the late

15th century, Ellys Manor has continental influences throughout and exceptional 16th-century wall paintings, ‘a rare English interpretation of French verdure tapestries’ (Pevsner). Overnight Rutland.

Day 3: Kirby Hall, Burghley House.

In taste and ambition these great houses, owned by two of Elizabeth I’s closest and most powerful courtiers, epitomise the standing achieved by the Queen’s favourites. Kirby was completed with precocious classicism by Sir Christopher Hatton; though now partly ruined, it remains extraordinarily impressive.

Magnificent Burghley House, perhaps the finest Elizabethan house in England, was built by William Cecil in a palatial compound of mediaeval, classical and pseudo-classical styles. The handsome Cecil funerary monuments in St Martin’s Church, Stamford.

Overnight Rutland.

Day 4: Cambridge. Though begun in 1446

by Henry VI, King’s College Chapel acquired its present form during the reign of Henry VIII. Combining the very best of Tudor era architecture, stained glass, sculpture and furnishings, this is one of the world’s greatest buildings. The three splendid gateways created in the 1550s–70s at Gonville & Caius College are remarkable for their Renaissance design and symbolism. Trinity was founded

by Henry VIII in 1546; the university’s largest and wealthiest college was endowed with land from dissolved monasteries. First of two nights in Lavenham.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

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Tudor England

Day 5: Coggeshall, Paycocke’s House, Layer Marney. The village of Coggeshall, Essex, has many fine Tudor buildings of which Paycocke’s House (1509–10) is the most impressive; fine beam-work, panelling and other rare survivals. The abbey was granted to Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to Jane, by Henry VIII, and the 16th-century manor house incorporates elements of the monastic complex. Had it been completed, Layer Marney would have rivalled Hampton Court in splendour. The spectacular Tudor gatehouse with its Italianate decoration is the tallest in England. Henry VIII and Elizabeth both visited. Overnight Lavenham.

Day 6: Otley Hall. Beautiful, moated Otley Hall was the seat of Bartholomew Gosnold, who rallied support to plant an English colony in north Virginia; in 1602 he landed on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, named after his deceased daughter. Set in 10 acres of gardens, Otley’s exterior has splendid chimneys, brickwork and vine leaf pargetting. Inside, wall paintings commemorate a marriage of 1559, and the Great Hall and Linenfold Parlour are unequalled in Suffolk. The tour finishes at Ipswich Railway Station by 2.30pm.

If you are combining the tour with The Suffolk Festival, there is a transfer to Bury St Edmunds to attend the first event of the festival at 4.00pm.

Lecturer

Practicalities

Professor Maurice Howard teaches Art History at the University of Sussex. His books include The Early Tudor Country House and The Building of Elizabethan & Jacobean England.

He was Senior Specialist Advisor for the Tudor and Stuart sections of the British Galleries at the V&A and was co-investigator for the National Portrait Gallery’s Making Art in Tudor Britain project. He has been President of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

Price: £1,680 (per person, two sharing) or £1,890 (double for single occupancy). This includes: hotel accommodation; private coach throughout; breakfasts, one lunch and three dinners with wine; all admissions; all tips; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.

Accommodation. Barnsdale Lodge Hotel, Rutland (barnsdalelodge.co.uk), housed in an extended old farmhouse close to Rutland Water. Public rooms and bedrooms are arranged around a courtyard and have a traditional, country décor. The Swan Hotel, Lavenham (theswanatlavenham.co.uk): dating from the 15th century, The Swan has been an inn since 1667; rooms have been recently renovated yet retain their historical character; excellent restaurant.

How strenuous? Unavoidably, there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing.

Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive and the houses visited don’t have lifts. Average distance by coach per day: c. 77 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Above: Cambridge, Trinity College, etching 1819 by H. Toussaint.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Mediaeval East Anglia 9–13 June 2016 (mc 717) 5 days • £1,160 Lecturer: to be confirmed Two cathedrals, Norwich and Ely, major Romanesque buildings with glorious Gothic additions.

Three great keeps at Castle Rising, Castle Hedingham and Framlingham.

Fine parish churches including Long Melford, Lavenham and East Harling.

Based in Bury St Edmunds.

Famed for its mediaeval wool churches and for the virtuosic qualities of its Romanesque architecture, East Anglia boasts the greatest concentration of mediaeval buildings to survive in any region of England.

It is also an area whose towns and villages have grown little since 1500, and whose mediaeval infrastructure remains relatively clear. This is perhaps most apparent in Bury St Edmunds, whose street plan is still that of the new town laid out, along with the abbey, in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest.

Thus Bury is an irresistible and ideal base for the tour.

The major buildings to be visited are, of course, East Anglia’s two mediaeval cathedrals at Ely and Norwich. Both retain a substantial Romanesque core, and were magnificently refurbished between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Ely Cathedral, copper engraving 1655.

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Cathedrals, castles, parish churches Pre-festival tour

Bury St Edmunds is also within easy reach of some of the finest castles and parish churches in England, and the majority of buildings visited fall into these latter categories – the great twelfth-century castles at Castle Rising, Castle Hedingham and Framlingham, and the incomparable late mediaeval churches of Lavenham, Long Melford and Gipping.

Itinerary Day 1: Ely. The coach leaves the hotel at Bury St Edmunds at 1.00pm and Ely railway station at 2.00pm. At Ely Cathedral study the Lady Chapel, monastic precincts and all, a complex whose Romanesque crossing tower famously collapsed in 1322 and whose replacement is quite simply the most inventive response to disaster 14th-century Europe has to show. All four nights are spent in Bury St Edmunds.

Day 2: Norwich, East Harling, Woolpit.

Visit Norwich Cathedral, beginning with the choir and progressing through transepts and nave to the superlative late mediaeval cloisters. The afternoon is spent in two contrasting parish churches, aristocraticallyfinanced East Harling (excellent 15th-century screen and glass) and guild-financed Woolpit (spectacular hammerbeam roof).

Day 3: Long Melford, Lavenham, Castle Hedingham, Thaxted. A short drive south to Holy Trinity at Long Melford, a building dazzling not only for its scale but for the quality and quantity of its late 15th-century decoration, most famously the great run of

stained glass donor portraits which light the north aisle. Then to that other ‘rich clothier’s church’, Ss. Peter and Paul at Lavenham, whose heraldically-enriched elevations and screenwork make such an excellent foil to Long Melford. The afternoon is divided between the de Vere Earls of Oxfords’ mighty 12th-century keep at Castle Hedingham and the stunning late mediaeval elevations of Thaxted.

Day 4: Gipping, Framlingham, Bury St Edmunds. A morning in north Suffolk.

Gipping, Sir James and Lady Ann Tyrell’s jewel of a chantry chapel, remote, moated and all of a piece. Framlingham, a striking complex of church and castle that made the town the most potent symbol of seigneurial power in Suffolk. A free afternoon to wander at leisure in Bury St Edmunds, suggestions include the parish church of St Mary’s with magnificent hammerbeam roof and the remains of the Abbey of St Edmunds.

Day 5: Castle Acre, Castle Rising, King’s Lynn. A morning in west Norfolk. Castle Acre, Cluniac priory church and proud possessor of the finest of all East Anglian Romanesque arcaded façades. Castle Rising, a stunning juxtaposition of a castle built for Henry I’s widowed queen, Alice, and the sumptuously decorated late Romanesque parish church of St Lawrence. Break for lunch in King’s Lynn and return by coach to Bury St Edmunds, arriving in time for the first event at 4.00pm. The coach continues to Ely railway station by 5.00pm for those not participating in The Suffolk Festival.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

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Mediaeval East Anglia Practicalities Price: £1,160 (per person, two sharing) or £1,280 (double room for single occupancy).

This includes: coach transfers from the hotel in Bury or Ely railway station, and throughout the tour; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and 3 dinners in the hotel restaurant with wine, water and coffee; all admissions and donations; tips for drivers and waiters; the services of the lecturer.

Accommodation. The Angel Hotel, Bury St Edmunds (theangel.co.uk): 4-star hotel in an historic coaching inn in the centre of town. Rooms are warmly furnished with a contemporary décor in the public areas.

There is a good restaurant. Parking is available at no cost.

How strenuous? There is a lot of standing around for the church and castle visits. You must be able to undertake the necessary walking at the speed of the group. There is quite a lot of driving and getting on and off the coach. You will need to arrange your own travel to Ely or to Bury St Edmunds. Average distance by coach per day: 75 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Above: Nave of Norwich Cathedral, engraving in ‘Cathedrals, Abbeys & Churches of England & Wales’, publ. 1896.

Acknowledgements This brochure was produced in house. The text was written chiefly by Martin Randall and Sarah Pullen. It was designed by Jo Murray and was sent to print on 17th July 2015.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

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The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Booking form Your name(s) – as you would like it/them to appear to other festival participants.

1.

2.

Contact details for correspondence.

Address

Mobile Email ☐ Please tick if you are happy to receive your booking documentation by e-mail only, where possible.

☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive regular updates by e-mail on our other tours, music festivals and London Days.

Postcode

Telephone (home)

☐ Please tick if you do NOT want to receive any more of our brochures

Telephone (work)

What prompted your booking?:

Accommodation. Please tick to select your chosen hotel and room type (see page 11 for accommodation options).

Double for single occupancy

Standard double (two sharing)

Superior double (two sharing)

Junior Suite (two sharing)

Suite (two sharing)

The Angel Hotel, Bury

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The Swan Hotel, Lavenham

☐

☐

☐

☐

☐

The Great House, Lavenham

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☐

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Sharing a room?

☐ Please tick if

you require twin beds.

The walking option. See page 12 for details.

Coach from London. See page 12. Please tick to request.

☐ Please tick to register your interest. Details will be available towards the end of 2015.

☐ Day 1, Monday 13th June From London to your hotel, departing at 10.30am (£28).

Pre-festival tours. Please tick to book, and select a room type. ☐ Tudor England, 8–13 June 2016 (mc 713) See pages 13–14 ☐ Mediaeval East Anglia 9–13 June 2016 (mc 717) See pages 15–16 Room type (tick one): ☐ Double room for single occupancy ☐ Twin room (two sharing) ☐ Double room (two sharing)

☐ Day 4, Thursday 16th June From Bury St Edmunds to London, arriving at c. 7.00pm (£28).

Special requests including dietary requirements (even if you have told us before), and requests for extra nights.

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Booking form Passport details (in block capitals). Required by hotels if you live outside the United Kingdom.

Participant 1

Participant 2

Surname

Surname

Forename(s)

Forename(s)

Date of birth (dd/mm/yy)

Date of birth (dd/mm/yy)

Passport number

Passport number

Place of birth

Place of birth

Country of issue

Country of issue

Nationality

Nationality

Date of issue

Date of expiry

Date of issue

Date of expiry

Next of kin or contact in case of emergency.

Name

Telephone number

Address

Relation to you

Payment details Please tick a payment amount: ☐ EITHER deposit(s) amounting to 10% of the total booking cost (including pre-festival tours if you have booked either of these).

☐ OR by bank transfer. Please use your surname and the festival code (mc 714) as the reference and allow for all bank charges.

Account name: Martin Randall Travel Ltd Bank name and address: Royal Bank of Scotland, Drummonds, 49 Charing Cross, London SW1A 2DX

Total: £

Account number: 0019 6050. Sort code: 16-00-38 IBAN: GB71 RBOS 1600 3800 1960 50 Swift/ BIC code: RBOS GB2L

Please tick a payment method:

Agreement

☐ cheque. I enclose a cheque payable to Martin Randall Travel Ltd – please write the tour code on the back (mc 714).

I have read and agree to the Booking Conditions on behalf of all listed on this form.

☐ credit or debit card. I authorise Martin Randall Travel to contact me by telephone to take payment from my Visa credit/Visa debit/Mastercard/AMEX.

Signed

☐ OR full payment – required if you are booking within ten weeks of the festival (i.e. 4th April 2016 or later)

Bookings paid for by credit card will have 2% added to cover processing charges. This brings us into line with standard travel industry practice.

It does not apply to other forms of payment.

Date

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF, United Kingdom

Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Canada Telephone (647) 382 1644 Fax (416) 925 2670 canada@mar tinrandall.ca

Telephone +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@mar tinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

Telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 Fax +61 (0)7 3371 8288 anz@mar tinrandall.com.au

USA Telephone 1 800 988 6168 5085

The Suffolk Festival: Music of Tudor & Stuart England, 13–16 June 2016

Making a booking 1. Booking option

2. Definite booking

3. Our confirmation

We recommend that you contact us first to ascertain that your preferred accommodation is still available. You can make a booking option which we will hold for one week (longer if necessary) pending receipt of your completed Booking Form and deposit.

Fill in the Booking Form and send it to us with the deposit(s). It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage, and that you sign the Booking Form. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of the festival (i.e. 4th April 2016 or later).

Upon receipt of your Booking Form and deposit we send you confirmation of your booking.

Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.

After this your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions.

Booking conditions Please read these You need to sign your assent to these booking conditions on the booking form.

Our promises to you We aim to be fair, reasonable and sympathetic in all our dealings with clients, and to act always with integrity.

We will meet all our legal and regulatory responsibilities, often going beyond the minimum obligations.

We aim to provide full and accurate information about our tours and festivals. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.

If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.

What we ask of you That you read the information we send to you.

Specific terms Our contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd. Eligibility. We reserve the right to refuse a booking without necessarily giving a reason.

You need to have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the holiday by slowing them down – see ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 12. To this end we ask you to take the tests described on the right. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have met these requirements. Those participants who are unable to cope during the festival or prefestival tour may be required to opt out.

Insurance. As a condition of booking with us overseas residents must take out travel insurance for the duration of the festival (and pre-festival tour if booking this too). This should include full cover for medical treatment, including for your medical conditions, repatriation, loss of property and cancellation charges. We also recommend that UK residents take out insurance which would protect you in the event of cancellation and the loss or theft of belongings.

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Fitness Passports and visas. Overseas clients should check visa requirements for entering the UK with the British Consulate in their country of residence. Visas are not required for nationals of EU countries, the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Passports should be valid for at least six months beyond the end of the festival.

If you cancel. If you have to cancel your participation in the festival and/or pre-festival tour, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before departure the deposit only is forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost will be due: from 56 to 29 days: from 28 to 15 days: from 14 to 3 days: within 48 hours:

40% 60% 80% 100%

We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive your written confirmation of cancellation.

If we cancel the festival or tour. We might decide to cancel the festival or tour if at any time up to eight weeks before there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable. We would refund everything you had paid to us.

Self-assessment tests We ask that participants take these quick and simple tests to ascertain whether they are fit enough.

1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders.

Stand up and sit down at least eight times in thirty seconds.

2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone.

Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least sixty times in two minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under seven seconds.

An additional indication of the fitness required, though we are not asking you to measure this, is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand unsupported for at least fifteen minutes.

Financial protection. We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight by way of a bond held by ABTA The Travel Association.

The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of the festival or tour, except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.

If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating the festival or tour exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the festival or tour we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not acceptable we would give a full refund.

English Law. These conditions form part of your contract with Martin Randall Travel Ltd and are governed by English law. All proceedings shall be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. book online at www.martinrandall.com

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Above: Bury St Edmunds, mid-19th-century lithograph.

Front cover: Bury St Edmunds, St Mary’s Church, steel engraving c. 1820 by Henry Le Keux.

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Bar ley Mow Passage London W4 4GF, United Kingdom

Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia

Canada Telephone (647) 382 1644 Fax (416) 925 2670 canada@mar tinrandall.ca

Telephone +44 (0)20 8742 3355 Fax +44 (0)20 8742 7766 info@mar tinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com

Telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 Fax +61 (0)7 3371 8288 anz@mar tinrandall.com.au

USA Telephone (connects to the London office) 1 800 988 6168